The inflation rate rose to 6 percent, the highest in 19
months, compared with 4.95 percent in December, the Bucharest-based National Statistics Institute said today. The figure
exceeded the 5.4 percent median estimate of 15 economists
surveyed by Bloomberg. Prices rose 1.3 percent from the previous
month.

Romania’s central bank expects inflation to peak in the
first half of this year because of higher energy prices, before
slowing to the targeted band of 1.5 percent to 1.5 percent to
3.5 percent by the end of this year. Policy makers kept the
benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low this month
because of the inflation spike.

“Romanian inflation for January likely continued to
accelerate well above the central bank’s target; we see thus no
room for monetary easing in the short run,” Szilvia Laszlo, an
economist at DZ Bank AG, wrote in a note to clients today.
“However, CPI growth is likely to decelerate in the second
half, sliding close to the upper edge of the central bank’s
target band.”

The leu traded at 4.4013 per euro at 9:53 a.m. in
Bucharest, 0.1 percent weaker from yesterday’s close. It has
gained 0.97 percent so far this year, the second-best
performance among 25 emerging-market currencies tracked by
Bloomberg, trailing the Brazilian real.

Growth in food costs quickened to 7.2 percent in January
from a year earlier on higher vegetable and fruit prices,
compared with 6.2 percent in December. Inflation for non-food
items accelerated to 6.2 percent from 4.5 percent in December on
rising electricity and tobacco prices, the institute said.

Service-price growth slowed to 3.1 percent from a year
earlier, compared with 3.6 percent in December, as a stronger
currency brought down phone, rent and transport prices gaged in
euros, according to the statement.